Dublin-based pharmaceutical company Shire is making its biggest deal to date by adding U.S.-based ViroPharma to their rare disease portfolio for $4.2 billion.
Rare disease treatment can run up to hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient annually, and Shire expects the Exton, Pa.-based company to have a $2 billion rare disease revenue base in 2014.
“It brings us a new growth driving product which augments our already strong growth prospects,” stated Flemming Ornskov, Shire Plc. CEO. The company already has a focus in rare diseases, but is best known for its attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) treatments like Vyvanse and Adderall XR.
The acquisition of ViroPharma Inc. gives Shire two treatments recently launched in Europe and two more products undergoing clinical trials in the pipeline.
Cinryze, one of ViroPharma’s main products, is a leading treatment for a genetic disease affecting about 8,000 patients in the United States and about 10,000 in Europe. By Shire’s estimates, only about 3,500 of U.S. patients are currently under treatment.
Shire’s Firazyr drug treats acute attacks of the same disease, HAE (hereditary angioedema), and is one of their fastest growing products. Ornskov said on a conference call following the announcement that Shire’s product would be able to provide on-demand prevention while Cinryze would allow them to treat those patients long term.
According to reports, several other companies had been interested in ViroPharma, including France’s Sanofi SA. ViroPharma shares had jumped almost 30 percent in September on takeover speculation.
Shire agreed to pay ViroPharma $50 a share in cash, a 27 percent premium on its Friday closing price.
“Our focus on this does not stop as a result of today’s transaction,” Ornskov said on the call.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014 at the latest.
